"This sentence is unnecessarily long, unjust, and does not meet the statutory purposes of sentencing. But the Court is bound to follow the law until wisdom and common sense prevail."

1. That was Judge Roy Dalton in the Middle District of Florida lamenting his hands being tied in having to sentence a homeless man to 5 years in prison for delivering drugs for $30 on his bicycle.  Here's the whole order, which starts like this:

Mr. Moore is a homeless man who was living in a tent in the woods behind an apartment complex. While doing some odd jobs for one of the residents, Mr. Moore was approached by a stranger, Tyrone Green, who offered him $30 to ride his bicycle to drop off a package that contained drugs. For that, Mr. Moore is going to spend the next five years of his life behind bars. Mr. Moore played the most minor of minor roles in this conspiracy managed by Green—who has not been arrested. Mr. Moore did not know Green, and there is no evidence that he owned a phone, made any phone calls, arranged meetings, discussed drug type, quantity, or value, or did anything else in the conspiracy. Other than the fact that the package contained drugs, Mr. Moore had no other knowledge about the drugs—the type or the weight—or the conspirators. He was Case 6:24-cr-00040-RBD-EJK Document 115 Filed 12/06/24 Page 1 of 7 PageID 481 2 not even a bottom-rung street-level courier who delivered drugs for Green regularly over the months the conspiracy took place. Rather, Mr. Moore delivered one package—one time—on his bike and got $30 in return. (See Docs. 82, 83, 89.) But despite his low level of culpability, the minimum mandatory sentence for his crime is sixty months’ imprisonment. See 21 U.S.C. § 841(b)(1)(B).

2. In other news, ABC and George Stephanopoulos agreed to pay $15 million as part of a settlement with Donald Trump.  It's a pretty impressive win for Trump, who was represented by our very own Richard Klugh, along with Alejandro Brito.  They also get attorney's fees of $1 million.  The case was before Judge Altonaga.  Shortly before the settlement, both Trump and Stephanopoulos were ordered to sit for depositions in the coming weeks.